The end of August saw * and me going to Hamburg to visit B. who was there for an internship at a publisher’s (how cool is that?). Anyway, we spent four days there and had a really nice time.

We arrived Thursday morning early (after buying probably the worst book ever at the airport. Review follows) and first went to the hotel. We left our bags and headed to the opera. * is quite a theatre buff and we wanted to see what was on and see if we wanted to see anything. [We had bought tickets in advance to the Lion King [German], but everything else was open to discussion.]

After buying tickets to Carmen Flamenco and Victor/Victoria we walked through the Gänsemarkt to the City Hall, had lunch and then continued our walk to the Nikolai tower. The bell tower is all that is left of the Nikolai church. They installed a glass elevator which takes you to the top where you can enjoy the view.

After that, we headed to the church of St. Michaelis which we didn’t enter. Instead, we went to the nearby Krameramtswohnungen. That’s the sweetest little courtyard you can imagine, with a few antiquities shop and some tourist shop and a tiny museum. The museum shows the living arrangements of the widows of shopkeepers in the 17th centuries. Those widows had no rights at all – they weren’t allowed to work or to keep the money of their husbands. So the state built flats for them where they lived of a pension. You can visit one such flat in its original state.

And they had one box there that looked just like the Monster Book of Monsters in HP:

Anyways, from there we went to the harbour (passing the Danish Sailors’ Church, the Norwegian Sailors’ Church and the Finnish Sailors’ Church. I didn’t see the Swedish one, but I bet it’s around) and got on the ferry and drove a little bit around, just taking in the scenic view. (I almost fell asleep on the boat. It had been a very short night…)

Then we finally met B. and went to the Schanze, which is a part of Hamburg filled with restaurants, bars, students and, oddly enough, pretty expensive shops. We ate Pakistani for dinner and had some ice cream. After that we went to the Planten und Blomen park and watched a light and water concert.

After that, it was time to call it a night.

On Friday, * and I first headed to Beatlemania, a huge, newly opened and very awesome Beatles museum (in case you were wondering: Hamburg is the place the Beatles got big in, basically). It’s pretty interactive – you can take pictures of yourself on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover [which I'm not posting because * is also on it and I don't have her permission to make fotos of her public], you can sing karaoke [the recording of which I'm definitely not going to post] and can learn all kinds of trivia about the Beatles.

Me in the yellow submarine.

From there we went to the Alster, around which was a kind of fair with loads of food and drinks and crap to buy. We had lunch, then went to the Bucerius Kunst Forum, a museum where they had an Edward Hopper and contemporaries exhibition. The exhibition itself was very small but the first part was rather interesting. The second part, though, seemed more to be randomly arranged leftovers.

Then we headed back to the Alster fair to grab something to eat. We stayed there until it started to rain. And when I say rain I mean that there was enough water to supply a middle-sized country for a year within seconds.

So we took flight and went to Starbucks (which is so much cheaper in Germany than in Austria. OH THE UNFAIRNESS!) where we met B. Together we went to get dinner.

Afterwards, * and I headed to the Altonaer Theater to see Victor/Victoria. The theatre was pretty small and pretty empty and the production itself was okay, but nothing special. Still, it’s a funny play and we enjoyed ourselves.

From there we went to the Reeperbahn, which is Hamburg’s to go to place for a night out and also its sex district. It’s like club-bar-strip club-bar-club-strip club etc. And there’s also Herbert street, where it’s  forbidden for women and children to enter. [If someone's interested, I can sound off in the comments about how stupid I think that is.]

Translation: Entry for teenager under 18 and women prohibited.

On Saturday, we went to the harbour. There was a cliff diving championship you could watch and we did so. (I have to admit that I got bored pretty quickly and rather turned to read the WORST BOOK IN THE WORLD which I read compulsively. For some reason, I couldn’t stop. It wasn’t even so bad it was funny, it was just abysmal. But more on that in my review.)

* can do all kinds of nifty stuff with her camera.

Afterwards we headed to the Speicherstadt, or harbour city. It’s pretty much one building repeated all over again for a whole part of the city. There we went to the Spice Museum, which was nice but the smells made me a little nauseous and the Afghan Museum, where you get free tea and which is rather small but really interesting.

Then it was time for * and me to head to the afternoon show of Carmen Flamenco. Carmen Flamenco is exactly what it sounds like: the story of Carmen as danced by Flamenco dancers and with Flamenco music and a little bit of Bizet’s music mixed in for good measure. And it’s pretty awesome. I really like Flamenco, the dancers were great and the costumes were beautiful. Definitely recommended.

From there, we headed back to the hotel to take a quick nap before celebrating B.’s last night in Hamburg with her and her friends. First, we went to her place and then again to Reeperbahn and the Große Freiheit (big freedom), which is the club street – literally one club after the other.

Well, we had planned to head to the fish market sunday morning but decided that it was much too early after staying out till 3.30. Instead we slept in and then went to the Alster and borrowed a pedal boat for an hour, just driving around on the outer Alster.

Unfortunately, we tempted the gods by singing stuff like Here Comes the Sun and Let the Sunshine In because they promptly sent us rain. So we fled the scene and got some coffee to dry and get warm again.

Afterwards, we went to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum for Arts and Crafts). Unfortunately, they’re reconstructing right now, so we couldn’t see most of the stuff. Generally speaking, I didn’t think it that interesting. They had some furniture and a pretty boring Art Déco section (and I’m saying this as a huge fan of Art Déco), but mostly various forms of pianos. For me, the most interesting thing was some pottery by people who are not so well known for their pottery like Picasso or Miró.

Anyway, then it was time to see The Lion King. Finally. I was so looking forward to it. I had really high expectations – and I was not disappointed. The music is wonderful, as everybody knows who has seen the movie. But what was really the kicker was the costumes and the stage design. It was the first time ever that I heard applause for the stage design and the costumes – even before there was anything going on on stage, basically. If you ever have the chance, you have to see it. I promise, you’ll love it.

On Monday, we had time to go to Blankenese, a quarter of Hamburg dominated by single (rich) family homes and stairways. It’s really pretty and nice to walk around in. Unfortunately, it’s a little remote and it took us quite a while to get back to the city afterwards.

But we made it and decided to go see the Literaturhaus (literature house). This is basically a restaurant/book shop/literary venue. Nothing exciting to see but good food and a well selected books.

And then it was already time to head back to the hotel, pick up our stuff and get to the airport. And that’s what we did.

So that was Hamburg and my much too long account of it.

My guidebook refers to Hamburg’s Museum für Volkerkunde as an “anthropologist’s paradise”, which I found to be quite a fitting description after my visit. Despite its rather dull façade and old-fashioned interior, the museum offered many delightful surprises, so by the time I left I had decided that this was one of the best non-art museums I have visited in Germany so far.

First of all I went to a fairly large exhibit on Native American life. Although Germany seems to have little to do with indigenous peoples on another continent, it was mentioned in the caption of one of the displays that “hardly any German did not enjoy role-play games involving Indians as a child”. My instant guess was that this is due to the strong association between humans and other creatures in Native American culture, which appeals to every child’s imagination and answers to his dream of making animal friends. It also may have to do with how insistent Native Americans are upon maintaining their time-honoured ways of life, which stand in stark contrast to always cutting-edge, technology-pervaded Germany. But the personal confessions of self-professed Native American enthusiasts had one more reason to add: after WWII, Germans who were disturbed by their country’s history of fascism developed a penchant for staying on the side of the weak, so the continuous tension between Native Americans and increasingly aggressive colonial settlers prompted Germans to take interest in the former, as an expression against overpowering authority and unwarranted suppression. This may be a slightly controversial way of looking at things, but it was an thought-provoking idea that would never have otherwise come to my mind.

Left: Exterior of the museum; Right: Artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin

Anyway, after looking at Native American ceremonial objects and sitting in one of their tents for a while, I went to the Africa hall, which had showed a good blend of modern culture and old civilization. I had never expected that this would happen in Germany, but for the first time in my life, I saw artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin. This was followed by a walk through a corridor featuring South American treasures. There was jewellery, pottery and many other decorative objects not only from the Aztec and Mayan empires, but from even earlier peoples who inhabited the continent up to 3000 years ago. Those were more advanced than I imagined them to be, and very well preserved. Needless to say it was quite an unforgettable experience.

The second floor of the museum consisted of an exhibit on European cultures. The objects on display were very ordinary, but it was the presentation that mattered, because they definitely shattered my usual stereotypes of what the term “European” meant. On the other side was a hall on Asian culture, with the odd but intriguing theatre in Bali. This was followed by a temporary exhibit on masks from the South Sea, with an extensive collection that came from almost every Polynesian and Pacific Island that I can name. Many of them bore fierce expressions and symbols which represented their upstanding nature so as to ward off devils, and they looked particularly stunning under the dramatic lighting in the entirely black exhibition room.

Left: A rather ancient Polynesian yacht; Right: Masks from the South Sea

After a look at the entire Maori house at the deep end of the second floor, I decided that it was time for lunch. It took no time for me to decide on where to eat, because there was a Vapiano nearby, and I just could not resist eating at this chain for one more time before leaving Germany. Since Hamburg is an expensive city, the prices of most items here were stepped up, but the three pasta specials on the rotating menu were not. I ordered the first one, a Linguine Pollo di Pesca, which included smoked bacon, a few chunks of tender turkey breast, fresh peach slices and cherry tomatoes cooked in a rich but not satiating cream sauce. It was splendid – without a doubt the best meal I had at a Vapiano, and one of the best in my slightly more than five weeks in the country.

Left: Maori House in the Musuem für Volkerkunde; Right: Lunch at Vapiano

This was followed by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg’s applied arts museum. The exhibitions here were extremely diverse. Firstly there was a spectacular porcelain collection categorized according to the venue of production. I am not easily interested by tableware, but once I saw a set of plates that came from Schloss Sansoucci (which means Frederick the Great probably dined with it at least once), I decided that this exhibition was worth my time. The section on Schaugerichte, i.e. dishes which took up the form of creatures, was very imaginative. There were bowls in the shape of ducks, a vase in the shape of a turkey, even a big basin which resembled the head of an ox. But most impressive was the large decorative porcelain with themes from ancient mythology, done with ornate detail and incomparable skill. It definitely changed my mind on how sophisticated porcelain can be.

The section on Egyptian and Greek antiques were of course not as impressive as those in Berlin, but the Islamic and Asian collections were definitely eye-opening. The Japanese section included not only traditional items such as Buddha statues and samurai swords, but also plenty of modern-day Japanese art which combined ancient patterns and modes of expression with modern day contours and materials. And the recently-opened Chinese collection, though small, included some remarkable treasures such as a 3000-year old four-legged copper container.

Another part of the museum was dedicated to more modern items – there were entire rooms decorated in the avant garde style, and a hall of contemporary furniture which had a special section on artists from other genres – Pablo Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joan Miro, even Salvador Dali. My favourite was the egg chair by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen. Not really because I like the design, rather because there is a unique sense of smugness which comes with frequently sitting on the same type of chair (in Princeton’s Lewis Library) that is on display in such a revered venue!

Left: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe; Right: Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen

Rather oddly, the special exhibit was not on design, rather on the cartoons and comedy of Loriot, who is a national icon in Germany. I first got to know his work when Dr. Rankin showed us “Das Ei” (The Egg), a conversation between a stubborn man, who insists on having a soft-boiled egg cooked for exactly 4.5 minutes, and his wife, who maintains that she knows how exactly how long 4.5 minutes is according to instinct. It was interesting how the most mundane and annoying household argument could be transformed into a brilliantly ridiculous skit, and here at the Museum of Kunst and Gewerbe were many similar examples – some of them cartoons, others played by real life actors (including Loriot himself). I usually do not have the patience to watch long videos in museums, but for Loriot I made an exception, and watched almost every clip that was available. I also was very entertained by the hand-drawn originals of his cartoons. In the end I spent more than 90 minutes at the exhibit, which prevented me from visiting another museum before they closed for the day, but I absolutely did not mind.

In the evening I went to the Hamburgische Staatsoper to watch ballet, which is beyond doubt Hamburg’s most renowned form of performance art. The Hamburg Ballet is famous not only for its performance of traditional pieces, but also for original interpretations of masterworks from other genres (e.g. Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig, J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion) by the world-famous John Neumeier. Unfortunately, there were no Hamburg Ballet performances during my stay in Hamburg, so I opted for the next best thing available: a guest performance by the Ballet de Lorraine. I expected that any group invited to perform at this prestigious venue would be brilliant, but this show was not quite what I expected. It consisted of three short performances, all set to music by Igor Stravinsky. The first one was a burlesque act that reminded me of a cheap circus performance, and the second was too Soviet-prison-camp-like for my taste. To be fair, the third one, which was a more modern production named Mariage, was considerably better, and I appreciated the thought put into the simple but bold stage design. And the applause was quite enthusiastic at the end of the show, though I must say that Germans typically clap a lot more for their performances than people in other countries do.

Left: Hamburgische Staatsoper; Right: A scene from Mariage

Nevertheless, that was my second day in Hamburg, and my second last day in Germany. Check back soon for my entry for the last day!

Im Rahmen der museumseigenen Reihe DATE-THE-MUSEUM präsentieren die Macher von KAFFEE.SATZ.LESEN am 8. Mai einen Leseabend zur Kunst. Eingeladen sind drei Künstler mit Doppelbegabung, schreibende Maler, malende Schriftsteller, bildende Künstler und Autoren.

Ina Bruchlos zum Beispiel, die ihre hochkomischen Erzählungen in den Büchern „Nennt mich nicht Polke!“ und „Mittwochskartoffeln“ mit eigenen Zeichnungen illustriert hat und neue Geschichten lesen wird.
Und endlich einmal wieder in Hamburg: der erfolgreiche Maler Jürgen Noltensmeier aus Leipzig, dessen Roman „Geburtenstarke Jahrgänge“ sowie sein Erzählband „Tweedhosenastronaut“ von Feuilleton und Publikum gleichermaßen gelobt und geliebt wurden. Drei Künstler, einfach doppelt gut.

Informationen zu den Autoren:

Ina Bruchlos, *1966

In Bruchlos’ Texten geht es um die Grenzen der Kommunikation, um die Sprache in ihrer ganzen Missverständlichkeit. Es geht um Gesellschaftsspiele, bei denen am Ende niemand mehr weiß, was er am Anfang raten sollte, und die Frage, warum Künstler eigentlich nie lächeln. Ina Bruchlos lebt seit 97 in Hamburg und studierte Freie Kunst an der HfbK Hamburg. Sie arbeitet in den Bereichen Malerei und Literatur. 2005 veröffentlichte sie im Nachttischbuchverlag den Erzählband „Nennt mich nicht Polke“ und 2006 „Mittwochskartoffeln“. 2002 erhielt sie den Hamburger Förderpreis für Literatur.

http://www.ina-bruchlos.de/

Jürgen Noltensmeier, *1965

lebt und arbeitet in Leipzig. Er studierte Illustration an der FH für Gestaltung, Hamburg; erhielt ein Stipendium für den »Master of Fine Art« an der Glasgow School of Art. Es folgten verschiedene Tätigkeiten, u.a. als Nachrichtenredakteur, Mal- und Zeichenlehrer, Illustrator, Maler und Tanzmusiker. Mehrere Kunstpreise. Sein Roman „Geburtenstarke Jahrgänge“ ist bei Kiepenheuer & Witsch erschienen, sein Erzählband „Tweedhosenastronaut“ bei Voland & Quist.

http://noltensmeier.net/>

KAFFEE.SATZ.LESEN.DIESMAL.IM.MUSEUM.
Die Lesereihe zu Gast bei DATE-THE-MUSEUM im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
Donnerstag, 8. Mai 2008,
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Steintorplatz
20099 Hamburg
Einlass: 18:30 Uhr
Beginn pünktlich um 19:00 Uhr
Der Eintritt ist frei!

Eine Initiative von:
DATE-THE-MUSEUM
http://www.date-the-museum.de/

KAFFEE.SATZ.LESEN
http://www.redereihamburg.de/

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
http://www.mkg-hamburg.de/